February 11, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



141 



other nations, wlio may not be similarly 

 affected, to our altered circumstances? Be- 

 fore the war we welcomed papers from distant 

 contributors almost tmreservedly; our attitude 

 towards such contributors personally is in no 

 way changed, but our purses are not so full or 

 are more rapidly emptied. We would ask 

 them kindly to think twice before sending to 

 us a paper which could just as well be printed 

 in their own eoimtry; but I should add that 

 this suggestion has no official character what- 

 ever, and is made on purely personal responsi- 

 bility. — From an Oxford Note-Book in The 

 Observatory. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



ON THE STABILITY OF THE ACID-BASE 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE BLOOD IN 



NORMAL AND IN NATURALLY 



NEPHROPATHIC ANIMALS' 



In a recent number of this journal^ a note 

 was published which had as its object a dis- 

 cussion of the influence of the age of an 

 organism in maintaining its acid-base equili- 

 brixmi. In this paper the observation was 

 made that when animals of different ages 

 were intoxicated by uranium nitrate, the 

 factor of the age of the organism in the re- 

 action was expressed by an inability of the 

 senile animal to maintain with the same 

 degree of perfection a normal acid-base equili- 

 brium as was the case with the younger ani- 

 mal. More recently studies have been under- 

 taken which have had as their object an in- 

 vestigation of the stability of the acid-base 

 equilibrium of the blood in naturally nephro- 

 pathic animals following the use of an anes- 

 thetic,^ and of the ability of an alkali to pro- 

 tect the naturally nephropathic kidney against 



1 Aided by a grant from the Eockef eller Insti- 

 tute for Medical Eeseareh. 



2 MacNider, William deB., ' ' Concerning the In- 

 fluence of the Age of an organism in maintaining 

 its Acid-base Equilibrium," Science, N. S., Vol. 

 XLIV., 643, 1917. 



3 MacNider, William deB., " I. A Study of the 

 Acid-base Equilibrium of the Blood in Naturally 

 Nephropathic Animals and of the Functional Ca- 

 pacity of the Kidney in Such Animals following 

 an Anesthetic," Jour. Exp. Med., Vol. XXVIII., 

 501, 1918. 



the toxic effect of an anesthetic* As a result 

 of these studies the observation has been re- 

 corded that following the use of an anesthetic 

 a greater disturbance in the acid-base equili- 

 brium of the blood was induced in a naturally 

 nephropathic animal than occurred in a nor- 

 mal animal. Furthermore, a more adequate 

 degree of protection could be obtained in a 

 normal dog against an anesthetic by the use 

 of a solution of sodium bicarbonate than could 

 be obtained in a naturally nephropathic dog. 



The following study is concerned with an 

 investigation of the stability of the acid-base 

 equilibrium of the blood in naturally nephro- 

 pathic animals as contrasted with normal con- 

 trol animals when this equilibrium is upset 

 by the intravenous injection of an acid or an 

 alkali. 



Twenty-sis dogs have been used in this 

 series of experiments. Ten of the animals 

 were normal and were employed as controls 

 for the sixteen naturally nephropathic ani- 

 mals. The animals were anesthetized by 

 ether. A glass canula was inserted into the 

 femoral vein and connected with a buret. 

 Through this connection the acid or the alkali 

 was introduced into the animal's circulation. 

 At the end of half an hour of etherization the 

 reserve alkali of the blood (E.p.H.) was deter- 

 mined by the method of Marriott.^ Blood for 

 this purpose was obtained by puncturing the 

 saphenous or external jugular veins. After 

 making the initial determination of the ani- 

 mal's alkali reserve, both the normal control 

 animals and the naturally nephropathic ani- 

 mals received intravenously either 5 c.c. per 

 kilogram of a m/2 solution of hydrochloric 

 acid or 25 c.c. per kilogram of a three per 

 cent, solution of sodium bicarbonate. Deter- 

 minations of the alkali reserve of the blood 

 were made in both groups of animals at 

 fifteen minute intervals during the first hour 



*MaeNider, William deB., "I. A Study of the 

 Efficiency of an Alkali to Protect the Naturally 

 Nephropathic Kidney against the Toxic Effect of 

 an Anesthetic," Jour. Exp. Med., Vol. XXVIII., 

 517, 1918. 



5 Marriott, W. McK., "A Method for the De- 

 termination of the Alkali Reserve of the Blood 

 Plasma," Arch. Int. Med., Vol. XVII., 840, 1916. 



